The Government is to demand that RTE provides a list of its top 20 earners and details of their salaries. Following clearance by the Cabinet of RTE's annual report yesterday, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, was instructed to seek information on the pay and conditions of the top broadcasters.
The information sought will involve remuneration packages to RTE stars such as Gay Byrne, Pat Kenny, Gerry Ryan, and Marian Finucane. Details of their salaries have repeatedly been sought by Oireachtas Committees who have failed to secure the information.
However, in spite of the Cabinet decision, it is not clear if RTE can legally provide the kind of detail sought. The station's director of public affairs, Mr Kevin Healy, said last night RTE would consider any request for this information very carefully. However, RTE's "top talent" broadcasters have contracts which include confidentiality clauses, something that has been pointed out over the years to the various Oireachtas committees seeking information.
"Because of the existence of these clauses, we will have to take legal advice on any request that comes from the Government," Mr Healy said. "The details of these contracts are obviously confidential for good reason. They contain commercially sensitive information. At a time when competition at home is increasing, this data is particularly sensitive." In 1996, it was revealed by the then director general of RTE, Mr Joe Barry, that the top 10 earners in RTE made £1.22 million that year. However, he said he was unable because of legal and contractual reasons to make individual salaries public.
The people concerned have always refused to discuss their salaries. Gay Byrne has said that his salary was his own business and was not up for discussion.
According to a Government spokesman last night, the decision to investigate their earnings was taken "in the context of the annual report and in the interest of total transparency". In this "era of freedom of information", taxpayers were entitled to know how their money was being spent in the semi-State sector, he added.
The question also arose as to whether or not confidentiality clauses should be attached to contracts of semi-State employees, he said. It is understood that such clauses are part of "virtually all" the contracts in question and "the question was asked, why should these clauses exist where the taxpayer is footing the bill?"
"We cannot pre-empt the response from RTE. We are asking management at this point that the station provide the Government with these details by the next formal Cabinet meeting in early September," the spokesman added.
However, there was "little justification" for not providing this information, he said. The decision was made collectively by Government and was not proposed by one specific Minister.
The report, which is to be published within the next few days, confirms that RTE made a group surplus of over £6 million in 1997.